Dallas housing market on pace for another record year

Dive Brief:

Sales of existing single-family homes in Dallas–Fort Worth, TX, during Q1 were on pace to equal or surpass 2016's figures, according to the Dallas Business Journal, making it another record year.
Prices for those properties are also expected to keep climbing as supply there continues to contract. The market has a 2.2-month inventory of single-family homes, compared to the 6-month stock needed for equilibrium.
For the first time, the median home price in that market ($236,500 in Q1), was higher than the national median ($232,100 for the quarter) and represented one of the country's largest home-price increases for the period, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Dive Insight:

One of the nation's fastest-growing cities, Dallas is a hotbed for new construction as companies relocate to the area motivated in part by its historically lower costs of doing business and, for employees, cost of living.

A host of projects catering to this uptick in demand are in the works. Earlier this month, Houston-based developer Hines announced plans for a 135-acre "live-work-play" mixed-use complex that will bring 3.5 million square feet of office, residential and retail space to one Dallas suburb.

In April, developers broke ground on the 262-acre, $1 billion Bayside mixed-use project in Rowlett, TX, that will see an 8-acre lagoon and a 1,000 boat-marina added along Lake Ray Hubbard. The complex will also include 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, a 500-room resort and more than 2,500 condos, apartments, townhomes and single-family residences.

Along Frisco, TX's "$5 billion mile" is the $1.5 billion Frisco Station mixed-use development currently under construction. The 242-acre project will eventually feature 2,400 residential units, a 40-acre medical center, 650 hotel rooms and 300,000 square feet of dining, retail and entertainment space.

The rapid development in Dallas–Fort Worth has analysts worried the area could lose its status as a historically affordable market. As demand picks up and inventory lags, big builders are digging in. Taylor Morrison, for example, has said it intends to grow its presence there, announcing plans in October 2016 for two master-planned communities in the city's northern suburbs.

Texas' housing boom drove the state to a 38% share of the MPC market in 2016 — the most of any state, and a 28-percentage-point increase in its share of all U.S. MPCs since the 1990s.